under lock and key
by this is my kingdom come
Summary: "I would do anything to be with you." /justinalex non-connected drabbles
1. Chapter 1

She always pictured a romantic relationship with Justin. She pictured dates to the movies and kisses between classes. She wanted a candlelit dinner on their first anniversary. She craved holding hands on the streets of New York.

She didn't get any of those things.


	2. Chapter 2

"Stop it, Alex, we can't do this now," he whispers under the table. Alex dropped her fork at their family dinner and pulled Justin under the table with her.

"I know I just… needed to know that you love me."

He smiles. "I love you, Alex. I'm… going to go for a walk after dinner, if you want to come?"

"I wouldn't miss it."


	3. Chapter 3

"I wish we could disappear," he whispers, his fingers tracing the contours of her body.

She smiles at his touch and murmurs, "I would run away with you."

He chuckles softly. "You can't leave everyone, Alex. Not forever."

"I would, though. I would do anything to be with you." She leans up to kiss him, but he looks away.

"I know, Alex. I just love you too much to let you leave them. We can't do that to them."

"We're doing _this_."

"Well, that 's because I love you too much to stop."


	4. Chapter 4

"What are you working on, Alex?"

She's in her tunnel again, spray painting a pair of blue-grey eyes that she knows so well and has been sneaking glances at for the past seven months.

"It's…nothing," she says, blushing.

"Who is he?"

"He's no one."

Ben probably won't believe that. "Of course he's someone. If you care about him enough to memorize what his eyes look like." She wishes he would stop prying. It's no one's business whose eyes she can't get out of her head. I mean. She'd be this defensive if it was anyone else, right?

Or maybe she doesn't want anyone to know that, yes, her brother is someone, and yes, she's spray painting his eyes on the side of a tunnel, and yes, it's been seven months since she realized she was in love with her brother.


	5. Chapter 5

"H2SO4?"

"What?" Zeke looks at his best friend in slight disbelief. "Justin, that's…that's wrong."

Justin sputters. "But… Of course it's right, I just… _I'm wrong?_"

"Yeah, man. That's the third one today. What's going on with you? Who is she?"

A pinkish glow tinges Justin's cheeks. "No one. There isn't a girl," he lies.

"Yeah, there is. You always get all unfocused when a new girl comes along."

_Not anyone new. She's been around as long as I can remember. She's your girlfriend's best friend, Zeke. She's the beautiful brown-eyed girl who works at the sub shop. She… Alex._

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**author's note:** please do not favorite or follow without a review, and if you could, review anyways.


	6. Chapter 6

"_I'll meet you in the usual spot_," Justin's voice carries out through the speaker. She waits about a minute before the message continues, "_I love you, Alex_."

/

Justin breathes heavily as he climbs the last of ten flights of stairs. He checks his watch and sighs. Alex should be here by now. He hears footsteps above him and ducks into the roof entrance. It's raining lightly, but he can't be bothered. Not when Alex is here.

She turns at his footsteps and her lips fall into an effortless grin. He runs to her and pulls her close, breathing in her scent of cigarette smoke, Chanel Number 5 and fresh soap. He hugs her to his chest and she closes her eyes as he spins her around.

"I love you, Alex. I love you."


	7. Chapter 7

He likes preparing her coffee every morning. She likes it black, but that ruins everything, so he splashes in some cream and stirs it into the shape of a heart just to see her smile.

This particular morning, she actually notices the heart before she takes a sip, and she nearly chokes.

Theresa looks up. "Alex, are you okay, honey?"

She tries to send a death glare to Justin, but feels her lips curve up into a smile. "Yeah, mom. Coffee's just a bit…" She hesitates, before she sees Justin's face fall. "Actually, it tastes better than usual today."

Justin beams, and Alex sends a wink his way.


	8. Chapter 8

Alex stretches out on her bed and flips through a magazine. Harper is sprawled out next to her flipping through her own magazine, tearing out all of the fashion tips.

"You're taking another of those stupid quizzes? Alex, you're in love with the guy, whoever he is. I can tell by just looking at you." Harper groans, throwing it aside and collecting her stash of tips and sitting up.

Alex blushes and hides her face in her hands. "Harper, I don't! I can't. I don't—"

"—Fall in love, I know. But this guy seems different. I mean, you won't even tell me his name."

_It's Justin_, Alex thinks bitterly, wishing it was anyone else. _It's my brother, dammit, and I don't know what to do about it. _


	9. Chapter 9

As Justin looks at her from across the subshop, Alex is taken back to that moment—the one where their eyes connected and she felt a then unfamiliar knot in her stomach for the first time.

She was seventeen, and Justin had returned home from college and when he saw her, he ran across the airport terminal and she'd never felt more safe than she did in his arms. He was home for a month, and after that moment, Justin wasn't sure what to think about Alex, either.

When he left a month later, he kissed her.


	10. Chapter 10

It is there, behind the curtain, when he finally sees the opportunity to kiss her. He pulls her in and captures her lips on his just as the camera flashes—

One.

She pulls away and laughs harder than she has in a while because, really? Justin looks ridiculous in that hat and Alex is sure she looks the same in that feather boa.

Two.

She sticks her tongue out at him and he gives her bunny ears and now he's laughing and then the flash—

Three.

And then she kisses him, hard. He's surprised, and so the last picture that the photo booth prints out is a shocked-looking Justin and an in love looking Alex.

Four.

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**author's note:** thank you for all the follows/favorites and the reviews! I appreciate them so much, especially the reviews, they motivate me to keep writing these:)


	11. Chapter 11

One month. He told her exactly one month ago that he was leaving—leaving New York and leaving her. (He's going to travel to seventeen different countries and she won't be in any of them.)

"Justin, I'm going to miss you."

She practices saying it in the mirror almost every day, just to see if she can do it, to see if she can say those words without breaking down.

And then he really does leave and she can't. She really can't say it to him when he's actually at the airport and the airplane takes him away to the clouds.


	12. Chapter 12

Justin walks down the hall clutching his books to his chest when he is grabbed by the bottom of his shirt and pulled into the supply closet.

"Seriously, Alex? Here?" He whispers as soon as the door is locked.

He can hear Alex set her bag down on the dirty floor and step closer to him. "Yes, dork. I needed to see you."

"Because it's been so long since lunch?" He asks, laughing.

Alex snorts. "You know what I mean," and then she kisses him, long and hard.

And then after a minute, she pulls away and opens the door, leaving Justin in the dark closet with a smile stretching from ear to ear.


	13. Chapter 13

"What are you thinking about?"

Alex blinks. "Nothing, none of your business, anyway."

"Oh."

"Actually… Justin, you know that feeling, when… you meet someone and after a while… there's like this… I don't know. Like, the potential that you could, like, fall in love with them?" She's looking down, writing something on her thigh with her finger. _J-U-S-_

Justin hesitates. "Like, you could be in love with someone, but you aren't yet?"

"Yeah," she returns, concentrating. -_T-I-N._

Justin looks up at Alex, not taking his eyes off of her. "Yeah, Alex. I know the feeling."


End file.
